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27 September 2013

I feel like discussing currency conversions here. I've been to the United Kingdom, and even though our money is worth less there, and one of their pounds is worth around $1.70 in the U.S., a pound to them is like a dollar to us here: it buys the same amount of stuff, and it takes the same earning power to get it. I mean, there might be more details in there, but overall this is more or less true.

I kept wondering why so many of my Etsy sales were going to Australians and British people. Then it dawned on me: Etsy will convert your US price to whatever currency you choose. I can switch all my price preferences to British Pounds. That means that a $40 tiara in my shop costs only £25 for the Britsh. So, it's almost as if they are paying $25 to buy something that I am charging $40 for. So, if you're British (or Australian, I guess, although I've never been there and can't see how they judge a dollar), you are getting quite a deal with buying from American sellers. This is very interesting...

...but that also means that if people in the U.S. buy from British sellers, that Americans are paying a lot more...hmmmm...

17 September 2013

For those of you who thought I'd been snoozing, here are the most recent projects I've been working on! There was one week a while back where I went a little nuts and bought like 25 My Little Ponies from various sellers from Ebay and Etsy. While a good cleaning made most of them good for reselling (or keeping!), some of them had almost gone butt badges, cut manes, and missing tails. While I know it's sacrilege to many a Pony collector to label a Pony as "bait," and then make crafts with it, I knew that it was not worth my time to try and fix them up and sell them for only $10 (what most good condition ponies go for).

If you Google "OOAK My Little Pony," or something similar, you will see that quite a lot of people take "bait" ponies as an opportunity to make some really cool art. Most of what you find are very altered ponies, in some cases people have completely coated the pony in clay and added horns or crazy manes. I went one step further, by making a wearable piece of art out of my bait ponies. I've been interested in making hats for awhile, and I made Pony hats! The hats themselves are made from thick cardstock, covered in beautiful, one of a kind fabrics (seriously, they were fabric samples from a Zero Landfill Seattle event), and I've added sparkling craft sprigs. On two of the below hats, I've painted the ponies gold and blue. For the pink one, she was so pretty I left her the way she was. She had a cut mane and pretty much gone butt badges, but was still mostly in nice condition, so I didn't want to ruin her too much.

Before we get to Pony hats, this is a brooch I made for my sister. The purple rhinestone layer is an old bracelet I had bought her for Christmas one year, but it broke and she gave it back to me. Now I gift it back to her!

I've been seeing these painted eyes crop up all over the internet. I made mine out of flat-back glass marbles from Value Village, and I painted the backs with nail polish. Nail polish dries super hard, and the colors are vibrant and beautiful. I am not sure what kind of paint other people use to paint these types of things, but nail polish is relatively inexpensive, and plus, you can use it on your nails!

The Alien Pony Hat. I kept her eyes the original color, but coated them in sparkly nail polish. She wears a pearl collar, has green gem butt badges, a long two pronged blue sparkling tail, and a sparkling blue pipe cleaner mane. Her horn is also coated in sparkling nail polish. Pony is attached to a mini hat with elastic. She looks like she's on a stage!

Pony was disassembled (she's a Ballerina pony), spray painted gold, and reassembled. Harder done than said! This pony is also on a mini hat, which acts like a pedestal.

The three pony hats. I have another, silver, one that will be completed soon, and then a green one which I haven't started yet. The theme of that one will be mermaids!

Bling Pony Hat!

The Pink Hatter hat. I am keeping this one for myself! I love the fabric on the hat, it's predominantly green with pink and black swirls of design through it.

A large hologram green sparkly grape leaf and a large glitter pink flower adorn one side...

...and Pink Unicorn Pony adorn the other side! I removed her butt badge with acetone, and repainted a different design in nail polish, and affixed a tiny glass aurora rhinestone in the middle of each flower.

She has flowers in her hair, and an evil eye looks out from the front of the hat.